Accusation against Dover school superintendent not true

DOVER — During the Citizens Forum at Monday’s School Board meeting, resident Rick Hebbard charged that Superintendent Jean Briggs Badger had committed fraud along with another member of the community.

Briggs Badger said she is offended by the comments and that they are “simply not true.”

And the Dover chief of police agrees.

Hebbard started his speech stating that children are one of the most important parts of the community, before adding that the fraud committed by Briggs Badger and another member of the community was “against the citizens, taxpayers, parents and students.”

Chairman Rocky D’Andrea interrupted to remind Hebbard that only issues on the agenda can be discussed during the forum.

D’Andrea suggested Hebbard bring the issue to him or the superintendent at another time.

“Before you bring an accusation of such dire, I have no idea what, Mr. Hebbard, in what you are even referring to,” Briggs Badger said during the meeting.

“…I honestly have no idea what you are talking about and I think this is a very unfair forum to come up at Citizens Forum and spring this,” she said.

Before taking his seat, Hebbard assured D’Andrea and the other members of the School Board that the police are looking into the fraud.

On Wednesday morning, after Foster’s ran an article on Dover resident and real estate investor Nickolas Skaltsis, whose home was searched in late November by Dover police and representatives of the Attorney General’s office after allegations of investment fraud, City Councilor Michael Weeden sent an email to Briggs Badger.

“Now that news has broke that Nick (Skaltsis), a former school board chair, is being investigated for fraud, it brings up serious implications in what the (Hebbards) had said on Monday. If the (Hebbards’) accusations turn out to be truthful, this would be damaging to Dover’s reputation and invoke harm to the Dover School System,” Weeden wrote. “I hope that you can dispel any implications that you and Nick were jointly conducting fraud.”

Briggs Badger said Thursday that allegations made by Hebbard were “bordering on slander” and that “there is absolutely no connection.”

Police Chief Anthony Colarusso told Foster’s with his knowledge of the investigation that Briggs Badger is not in any way connected to the investigation.

Briggs Badger said she was approached by Skaltsis in the past, but that she felt it was inappropriate to invest with him.

“Maybe Mr. Hebbard is confusing me with John O’Connor,” Briggs Badgers said. “I have no connection.”

At least a half dozen or more local residents have acknowledged they invested with Skaltsis, including O’Connor, the former superintendent of schools.

“These kinds of attacks on people, good, hard working, dedicated people, take time and energy away from the work we really need to do,” Briggs Badger said.